Swift Mentoring - Teaching Methods, Strategies, General Concerns

This thread is for discussion from mentors within Swift regarding teaching methods, strategies, and other general concerns.

I became a mentor at the end of June and just upgraded my first trainee, and waiting to hear from Driver Development regarding who/when/where to get my next trainee.

Some of the people from my trainee's class/orientation are still out on the road trying to get their 200 hours in, as of two days ago one student only had 160 hours behind the wheel. My student passed his drive exam and failed his written exam, so he was assigned to me for an additional 50 hours BTW. Two days ago he passed his written and upgraded, with a total of 250 hours BTW.

It flabbergasts me to think that after five weeks a trainee would only have 160 hours BTW. I remember when I went through training in the Swift program last year it seemed my mentor ran super singles for about two weeks before I had my first 50 hours in BTW, then it took another month to get another 190 hours team driving (back when 240 hours BTW was required).

The only time I ran super single with my student was on the first day, in order to ensure we made it from Jurupa Valley to Denver on time. I ran past Barstow, then let my student drive all the rest. I never got behind the wheel again until he had 50 hours BTW and I qualified him to run as a team. Those first few hours of my driving also allowed me to talk my trainee through my philosophy of driving and demonstrate.

IMHO it makes no sense for a mentor to consistently be hogging hours BTW during training. It doesn't make economic sense to me and it doesn't help a trainee understand clock management during the first 50 hours BTW.

Thoughts regarding the first topic of this thread?

 

Super solo means that you are taking a load that is a LITTLE bit farther than a solo driver could make on time, but not far enough to really be interesting for a team.

For example, an 800 mile load that has to get there in about 24 hours. That's farther than a Swift solo driver could run. The most miles I've ever driven in a 62 mph governed truck is 666 miles (yep, the Satanic number) and ended with about a minute left on my 11 hour drive time. With an 800 mile load the team can split the driving and have an easy day of it, usually arriving early if it's an appointment and getting some sleep with a motionless truck.

Some husband and wife teams prefer to run super solo loads. They don't make as much as if they were each putting in full days and constantly keeping the wheels turning, but it is more relaxing.

When I went through orientation to become a mentor it was noted that the training program is being revamped, with more focus on making sure that new drivers are trained properly. I'm hoping with this thread that mentors with Swift will chime in and talk shop a little bit, get some ideas going for improving the program and helping each other.

 

I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm doing things better or worse than other mentors. For the opening topic of this thread I'm trying to understand why mentors would choose to drive so many of the available hours.

My strategy during the first 50 hours BTW was to make it a pure solo experience for my trainee. I wanted him to see how it is making each load on time, managing his clock, trip planning, pointing out the places on my "bucket list" for taking 10's, etc. Basic strategy for going OTR as a solo driver.

Once he had his 50 hours BTW my clock had run down to the point that we took a 34 before going team. By this time I was very comfortable with his driving skills and decision making. I got up any time there were challenges ahead, like big hills, urban areas, deliveries or pickups, etc. By the time we were into our second team week I started to let him do the whole thing on his shift, and he did fine. A few times he would wake me to ask questions or get help, but it was really a comfortable and enjoyable experience from my point of view.